Students who fail or miss a university examination will no longer be able to retain their scholarships under the Centre’s flagship INSPIRE-Scholarship for Higher Education (SHE) scheme, and the annual research mentorship grant has been restricted to the third and fourth years, reducing the maximum financial support over five years.
The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has also changed the way scholarships are allocated among school boards, introducing quotas by board, based on the number of Class 12 examinees rather than the number of applications received. DST announced the changes on November 7, opening applications for the 2025 batch of INSPIRE-SHE, following a delay of more than a year. Every year, around 12,000 INSPIRE-SHE scholarships are awarded to students pursuing undergraduate and postgraduate courses in basic and natural sciences. The scheme provides ₹ 5,000 a month, or ₹ 60,000 annually, along with a ₹ 20,000 annual mentorship grant. Eligible candidates include students in the top 1% of their respective Class 12 board examinations and those qualifying through specified national-level entrance examinations. However, no application notification was issued in 2025, leaving science aspirants uncertain about the scheme’s future, HT reported on July 15. Sohane scored 87% in the 2025 Uttar Pradesh Board Class 12 examinations, above the state’s 81% top-1% cut-off.
Till now, if someone failed, they lost that year’s scholarship but could get it back the next year. The application cycle usually begins around September, after college admissions and competitive examination results, and ends by October-November. Tripathi also questioned the stricter academic rules. “In subjects like Maths, a lot of students get a backlog in the first year, and this happens even at institutions like IISc, IISER and NISER.
Experts and students said the revised rules could make it harder for students to retain the scholarship, reduce financial support for research projects and alter the distribution of awards across states, potentially leaving some board quotas unfilled. Now one fails in the first year and the student is out of the scholarship completely, and in later years even a missed exam ends it,” he said. Pranit Sohane, a BSc student at Swargiya Sundar Lal Shivhare Degree College in Hamirpur, affiliated with Bundelkhand University, Jhansi, said the revised formula could leave some board quotas under-utilised while increasing competition in states with larger applicant pools.
The 2025 guidelines remove this provision.
“If a scholar has failed or secured less than 60% or 7 CGPA (cumulative grade point average) in the first year, he/she will not be eligible to receive even the first-year scholarship, and will be ineligible for the entire SHE scholarship period,” the revised frequently asked questions (FAQs) document says. Failure in subsequent years will mean the “scholarship shall be discontinued with immediate effect”, making the student ineligible for subsequent scholarship and mentorship instalments.
